General Help and Questions

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Hi Marinas Edge,

That checkbox is used to control what happens to the scheduled emails already in place for current bookings. So when you add or update templates, it allows you to update all the current bookings in bulk instead of having to run around and manually touch each one.

If a booking has already sent a scheduled email for that type of template, it won't be sent again. To see what I mean, open a future booking, go to the Email tab and look at the bottom of the page. See the scheduled email there? You can add, update or delete the scheduled email at the booking level.

The reason you got 50 emails all of a sudden is because you added a booking that was 0 days after booked and you had 50 future bookings. When you saved the template, the system went and created a scheduled email for all of those future 50 bookings and since the scheduled sending time (0 days after booked) was past, they all went out.

Does this make sense?

-Michelle

ok that worked, but now there seems to be a different issue. I uncheck the checkbox for "overwrite all current bookings to use these settings", I hit save, and when I re-open to edit, it is checked again. This resulted in 50 emails in my wife's inbox this morning :(.

Thanks again

Awesome. THANKS and happy 4th of July!

This is happening because you changed the field code. You colored the "BID" part (without the curly brackets) red. That makes the code invalid because the actual HTML of the code now shows something like "{<span>BID</span>}" under the covers. You can see what I mean by looking at the HTML view of the email template. The original code of "{BID}" needs to remain unchanged in order for the transformation to work correctly. If you want the Booking ID to be red, put the red color around the entire code. In other words, put the the curly brackets inside the red part.

Remember to use the preview button when creating email templates to see how it will look after transformation. If you can still see the field codes in preview, then something is wrong.

-Paul

Awesome work on email scheduler. This is a huge improvement.

I was experimenting last night and the fields I added to the body of email didn't come through. For example, instead of the property name I got pname.

Let me know if I have done some thing wrong.

Damon

Hi 5STAR,

Can you be a little more specific about your website and what you would like to integrate? If you share your website, I can look at it and give you some pointers.

Currently, there are two major ways that users integrate their websites with OwnerRez:

1) Show availability through our calendar 'widget'. To do that, you need to copy/paste a small amount of HTML that we provide you into your website. That will then show your website visitors what dates your property is available.

2) Send your inquiries into the system. In order to do that, you'll want to have the inquiry or "contact us" form on your website create an email that is sent to OwnerRez based on these instructions:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/inquiry-parsing-for-custom-emails

The email address you send to for each of your properties is provided on this page:

https://app.ownerrez.com/inquiries/instructions

Hope this helps,

-Michelle

HOW DOES YOUR PROGRAM WORK WITH MY WEB SIGHT

No problem...just add it to your backlog :)

Damon

Hi Marinas Edge,

I did see it. Thanks for the request! Not sure if we can do all of that, but we'll definitely discuss it.

-Michelle

Ping...just checking to see if you saw this request.

@Jon: You're exactly right. The template is simply off. You did it the right way. We already found that bug (as reported by others) and it's fixed in development. The fix will be out in production by Friday. ~Sam

Hi I think we did this the right way - we wanted to hold $60 back. Typed that in, butin the email confirmation it said:

Of the original $200.00 that was reserved, we have kept $140.00. Notes:.

I believe the template is incorrect, and in fact $140 is what was being returned. I'll see if I can figure it outwith the template.

Awesome-yes this is perfect. Sorry my wife took over all of the booking/security deposit processes, she's out so I didn't know what would happen if I clicked on that release deposit button :-).

If for some reason the security deposit amount isn't large enough to cover all the damages, or the bank has already released the security deposit (rarely but sometimes happens) you can still use the Payments tab to collect a payment for what the guest owes.

-Michelle

Hi Jon,

Simply go to the booking in question can click on the Security Deposit tab. Click the Release button and you'll be presented with several options. Click the second option of "Reserve all but" and fill in the amount you need to KEEP. So if you're damages are $75, that's the amount to fill in. Then fill in an explanation of the charges so the guest (and you) have a record of what the charge is for. Then click release and it will do its thing.

Hope this helps,

-Michelle

HI,
A guest that checked out this weekend, and unfortunately we've found damage in the home. The security deposit for the booking still shows as held, but I want to charge them now or at least not release the hold. Can you tell me how to do that? Booking # ORB254607.

I am still evaluating what we need to charge this renter for damage done...

We want to contact our guests by phone or email a few days before they arrive. With iCal you put the booking information on the calendar.

It would be TOTALLY AWESOME if you could enable reminders by default and give us the choice of how many days before arrival to set the reminder. That way, the iCal would pop up to remind us to contact our guest.

Extra bonus...include the phone number in the body of the appointment so on my phone I can get a reminder, open it up, and click the phone number to call (takes a ton of extra steps out).

Thanks! You guys rock.

Damon

Yes, that's correct.

For anyone else who stumbles onto this topic looking for the same answer, you do the following:

- Open the booking
- Click on the security deposit tab
- Click the "Change Scheduled One" button
- Adjust the amount you want to be reserved
- Click the Save button

Is there a way to change the Security Deposit amount, after the person has booked and paid for the booking? I was just looking and noticed that I would like lower the Security Deposit on a Return Customer. I forgot to do it before, when I quoted him. Now, I can't find how to lower it before it is due.

Thanks,
Claudia

** Never mind. I found it. It is under Schedule. I thought I needed to enter the credit card info, but I see that it is already there and I can change the amount easily.

Thanks!

Yes, exactly. The only ones we have a fixed rate on (2.95% flat) is MasterCard, Visa and Discover.

So, there may be an extra fee, as AMEX has?

Claudia

MasterCard, Visa, Discover and Amex can all be accepted by our Woodforest/SecureNet merchant accounts. Diner's Club is owned by Discover so that's included as well UNLESS you're talking about Diner's International which is a bit different. JBC, Euro, CarteBlanche I BELIEVE can be added in as well though those have entirely different applications and fee structures.

Hope this helps,

-Michelle

Hi,

Are the below cards accepted from WoodForest?

carteblanche, dinersclub, discover, eurocard, jcb, mastercard, visa. I know that they also accept AMEX, but there is an extra cost to use AMEX.

Thank you,
Claudia

At the moment, we're restricting use of APIs only to integration partners. We have done a ton of work on it but there's a little further to go until we can release that live to the public. There's a lot of functionality in the system - we have to be really careful how solid the APIs are before opening that up. Thanks for your patience. ~Sam

Excellent! Thank you!!!

Claudia

FYI - that fix went out in tonight's release. Also, the security deposit and payment pages now show the URLs you can use for public forms. Just copy that URL and give it your guest for payment or security deposit. ~Sam

I can't wait!

Speaking of APIs, with all the work you've done on APIs is there a way to access the data through the APIs so that I can build a set of custom reports?

Tomorrow or Friday we're doing a release that:

* Expands the inquiry workflow a bit (eg. allows for multiple email addresses and phone numbers)
* Exposes public guest forms for second payments and security deposits
* Adds custom fields at the booking level
* Bunch of other minor things

Lot of API work this release so not a whole lot in the UI for users to see beyond that.

Coming out in the near future (weeks to months):

* Notes - add them to inquiries, quotes and bookings and find them with the global search
* Custom email sending - schedule custom emails to fire at date/time or based on workflow events (eg. booking paid in full)
* Auto responders - the system will send quotes and inquiry responses automatically based on rules (ie. an inquiry is available and no comments are entered = reply automatically)
* Ribbon view
* Reports
* Public calendar form for sharing data by webpage (for housekeepers and websites) that also shows multiple properties and has availability filters (ie. think calendar widget but a full page and a lot more features)
* Moving all pages and forms to new design, optimized for touch/mobile

There's a long to-do list beyond this, but these are the top priorities right now.

Hope this helps,

-Michelle

Perfect. What is coming out in the next few releases? We love the system, hoping automatic emails a few days ahead of arrival date is soon...

I don't. We only include that line by default because many owners like to send a followup survey or review request after the guest departs.

For instance, TripAdvisor (which is powered by FlipKey) has a feature where you can send "Review Requests" to any person. You just enter their email address and name and FlipKey takes care of the rest. Then, whatever review they provide shows up on your FlipKey/TripAdvisor listing.

Another common (and free) tool to use is the Google Form tool that comes with Google Spreadsheets. More about that here:

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/87809?hl=en

This allows you to prepare a nicely formatted Q/A that then shows all the answers in a Google Spreadsheet for you to review later.

It is a goal of ours to include auto surveys and Q/A forms after the departure as a part of the OwnerRez email process, but for the time being it's been wait-listed on the priorities list.

Hope this helps,

-Michelle